Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward. [Extract.] No. 68.] UNITED STATES LEGATION, SIR: I have had the honor to receive your despatch of the 21st of November, No. 79. It is gratifying to be assured that Congress will return to a wise system of finance so unfortunately departed from at the last session. The act of making government paper legal tender roused a general distrust in commercial and financial circles in Europe, which a promise to continue to pay the interest on government bonds in coin failed to allay. It was argued that the temper which prompted the greater assault on capital would not stick at the less, when necessity pressed. The result is seen in the general collapse of American securities in European markets, and the yet growing distrust of our financial management, a result which sound financiers do not believe to be a necessary consequence of the war, or of any circumstances which have yet arisen in its prosecution. JAMES S. PIKE. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington. No. 81.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 23, 1862. SIR: Your despatch of the 3d of December (No. 67) has been received. From some of our representatives in Europe there continue to come such expressions of apprehension and such warnings of danger as to embarrass the President, who is disposed to take a more cheering view of our foreign relations, at this time, than he has allowed himself to indulge at any previous period since the civil war commenced. It is earnestly hoped that your opinions in this respect, so decidedly concurring with his own, and, at the same time, so plausibly if not reasonably sustained by a survey of European politics, may be confirmed. I am, sir, your obedient servant, JAMES S. PIKE, Esq. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike. [Circular No. 30.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 24, 1862. To the Diplomatic and Consular officers of the United States: The necessity of devising new modes of protecting the interests of the revenue of the United States, and of carrying such methods into execution, makes it desirable that the Treasury Department should be informed of the means adopted by the several nations of Europe for the protection of their respective revenues and the collection of duties in the passage of goods across the national frontiers, and in the transhipment in their ports for export to a foreign land. I have therefore to request, at the instance of the Secretary of the Treasury, that you will furnish the department with such information upon this subject as you can obtain in respect to the country of your official residence; also, with the forms which are used, and the rules and regulations in force, the fees charged, and other expenses incurred in the foreign revenue service. The last mails have brought us Mr. Chase's report on the finances, which was looked for with much interest in this money-lending country. Its exposition is assuring, and its tone is regarded with much satisfaction. Should Congress follow in the path he has marked out, American securities will begin to improve from their declining condition here, and a basis be formed for future loans. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, JAMES S. PIKE. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, Washington. Mr. Pike to Mr. Seward. No. 70.] 70. UNITED STATES Legation, The Hague, December 31, 1862. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of December 6, No. The President's message, the American diplomatic correspondence of 1862, and Mr. Bright's Manchester speech, all appearing at the same time, have given a great fillip to the discussions of the American question. The anti-slavery position of the government is at length giving us a substantial foothold in European circles. And the seceding States are at the same time feeling the heavy weight of the slavery load. If we could have begun where we now stand, our position in Europe would at this moment be well nigh impregnable in the field of discussion. The American question has now become a dangerous one for the ruling classes, in every deliberative body in Europe. So long as it was a question between a government and a revolt, the instincts of even the liberal masses had a tendency to side with the rebellion; revolts being instinctively regarded as merely protests against some form of oppression. But everybody can understand the significance of a war where emancipation is written on one banner and slavery on the other. And thus, though we have no strength with any political organization in Europe, we are now strong in the public assembly and in the press, constraining, at least, the respect of even the paid advocates of dynastic rule; while the solid weight of debate, private and public, goes wholly in our favor. We need not now fear, but rather welcome the parliamentary discussions which it is to be supposed will come in England and elsewhere during the winter. The main drawback to these considerations is to be found in our repeated misfortunes before Richmond. The repulse of General Burnside at Fredericksburg is a heavy blow to the remaining belief in Europe of our ability to conquer the rebellion in the field. If the emancipation scheme fails, there is danger that we shall soon be regarded everywhere on this side as being destined to fail altogether. But this will not help the bad position of the seceding States, but, on the other hand, rather tend to uncover the atrocity they meditate; the growing probability of the realization of their designs bringing them into bolder relief. It is an often expressed hope in financial circles that our courts will declare the legal-tender enactment of last year to be unconstitutional. It is thought if this should be done, and Mr. Chase's recommendations be sustained by Congress, that our financial situation would soon again command the confidence of capitalists abroad. The present administration of this government is still busy with its reformatory measures. It has aimed at considerable changes in its colonial policy, which have at last received a decisive check in one branch of the legislative department, and the retirement of the colonial minister is likely to be the consequence, and possibly the entire reconstruction of the cabinet. I have not yet received any reply from this government in relation to the proposed emigration of colored persons to its colonial possessions from the United States. I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, JAMES S. PIKE. Secretary of State, Washington. Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike. Department of STATE, Washington, January 3, 1863. SIR: You will receive herewith a copy of a proclamation which was issued by the President on the first day of January instant, in which he designates the States and parts of States which yet remain in insurrection against the United States, and gives effect to the proclamation which he issued on the 22d day of September last, and in which it was announced that the slaves within such States and districts would, as a measure of military necessity, on the said first day of January, be declared forever free. Through this great act, slavery will practically be brought to an end in eight of the States of this Union and in the greater portions of two other States. The number of slaves thus restored to freedom is about three and one-half millions. The President entertains no doubt that this transaction will commend itself to the enlightened judgment and moral approbation of not only all Christian states, but of mankind. I am, sir, your obedient servant, JAMES S. PIKE, Esq., &c., &c., &c. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Same to all of the diplomatic and consular agents of the United States. By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free; and the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom: "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion againt the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States: " Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and desiguate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are and henceforward shall be free; and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. [L. S.] By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. No. 84.] Mr. Seward to Mr. Pike. DEPARTMENT OF STATE SIR: Your despatch of December 17 (No. 68) has been received. Your suggestions in regard to the financial measures of the government will receive due consideration. You will accept my thanks for the information you have obtained and given to me concerning the case of the rescue of a Dutch vessel, during the Crimean war, when proceeding to port for adjudication, under convoy as a prize, and the demand for her restitution, which was thereupon made by the British govern SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch (No. 69) of the 24th ultimo, and to inform you that that part of it relating to finance has been communicated to the Secretary of the Treasury. I am, sir, your obedient servant, SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two despatches (Nos. 81 and 82) of the 23d and 24th of December. * * * Europe is quiescent on American affairs. Since Fredericksburg, it too generally countenances the belief that the United States cannot conquer the rebellion in its fastnesses with their troops in the field. It waits now to see what will result from the proposed emancipation measures. Time is fast showing who is right and who is wrong in their views of foreign interference in our affairs. I am well pleased to be informed that the President concurs in the opinion I have had the honor to express on a former occasion on this subject. My own judgment is, that not even Fredericksburg will prompt any act of recognition. It is not single occurrences that exercise a controlling influence over the views here taken of our concerns, but only the general march and aspect of events. These of late have not been favorable, but nobody knows how soon things may take a turn if the government continues resolute in its purposes. Europe will thus wait till the government itself flags, though always with a chronic distrust of the wisdom and constancy of popular rule. The late elections are taken to imply a coming capitulation to the insurrec |